KLEMENČIČ, Ignac
* 6. 2. 1853, Kamni Potok, Slovenia
† 5. 9. 1901, Trebnje, Slovenia
Physicist
K. attended grammar school in Novo Mesto and then studied physics at the University of Graz. In 1876 he received a diploma. As early as 1879 he wrote his doctoral thesis. Ludwig →Boltzmann recognized his student’s talent and recruited him as his assistant. In 1881 he received a permission to teach as a senior lecturer and in 1888 became associate professor for experimental physics at the Graz University.
He was primarily interested in the molecular mechanics, while later on showed interest also in the fields of electricity and magnetism. Above all he dealt with electrodynamics, previously founded by Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell.
In the 1880s he vigorously worked on electrical capacitors and resistors. In 1884 he measured the velocity of electromagnetic waves with great precision and thus verified Maxwell's theory. His experimental work in the field of electromagnetic waves led to the discoveries, for which he together with Ernst Lechner received the Baumgartner award in 1892. Although he was supported by →Boltzmann, he did not receive the post of professor of physics at the University of Graz, which was assigned to Lechner. Nevertheless, in 1895 he was invited to the post of a full professor in Innsbruck. K. unexpectedly died from a stroke on 5th September 1901, just before he planned a new employment at the University of Vienna and before he would become a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
